A proven technology for capturing the acoustic sound of your instrument's strings.

In 1997 fingerstyle great Doyle Dykes approached LR Baggs with his dream of creating a pickup that would capture the way he played. As a solo acoustic guitarist his special needs in a pickup included great tone, natural dynamics, presence, precise articulation and perfect string balance. Lack in any area would have a negative affect on his ability to convey his music. With two years of R&D, much encouragement and persistence from Doyle and some great input from Earl Klugh they created the ultimate, no-compromise pickup for acoustic performers.

To achieve adequate articulation and dynamics LR Baggs chose to use an individual pickup per string. To achieve perfect balance they created a tripod upon which the string is balanced and supported equally between two raised points at the ends of the bottom of the pickup. This method of support created immunity from variations of the saddle slot that normally affect balance. The use of set screws for these points allow for easy, user-adjustable action changes. They enhanced the flexibility of the sensor element so it would not compress the instrument's dynamic range like typical transducers. LR Baggs placed the sensing element extremely close to the string for immediacy without harshness and to minimize feedback. The sensor was also specially designed to balance warmth from the body with direct string input. When they were happy with the performance, they created precision molds to insure consistently perfect pickups. The body of the transducer is gold-plated to resist corrosion and the crown is hard-chrome-plated for long life.

I put a set of these into an old beater Martin and found that these 6 units do a great job of putting out clear peizo sound. I routed out my saddle slot and shimmed them on each side with different-width strips of ebony to get near perfect intonation, which took a while, but is really nice now that it's done! As with any peizo, you have to boldly EQ the output if you want to get rid of the quack, but the tight lows and clear highs are there on this system as well or better than anything I've ever played. As is usually the case, the wound strings have a different character than plain steel, and these things seem to amplify that difference a bit (the G string, particularly, seems a little bright with fresh strings and the plain steel strings aren't quite as loud as I'd like). I could see a case for splitting the wound and plain strings into a stereo output to allow one to EQ and boost each zone separately for even better results (I think I read where D. Dykes ran several channels out), and this is the only pickup system I know of that allows you to have that kind of control. Me: I used these peizo pickups to add definition to my K&amp;K Pure Western Mini pickups (I've fallen in love with that pickup), so I'm already in stereo. I played around with just using the Hex peizos, and they are hot, clear and very well balanced, and I was able to get a killer sound with my EQ and Aphex 204.The peizos simply do what they were supposed to do - amplify each strings with clarity and balance.I am very impressed with the clarity of sound these produce.I got mine for 100 bucks on ebay and feel like it was a steal! I intend to buy another set for another guitar.

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